Pete Hegseth has shared an update on what the US knows about the health of Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.
“We know the new so-called, not so supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured,” the US defence secretary said.
Khamenei, who was appointed to succeed his father, had released his first statement yesterday but did not appear in person and did not read it out himself.
Hegseth called the statement “a weak one”.
“There was no voice and there was no video. It was a written statement,” he said.
“Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders. Why a written statement? I think you know why.
“His father is dead. He’s scared; he’s injured; he’s on the run and he lacks legitimacy. It’s a mess for them.
“Who’s in charge? Iran may not even know. With every passing hour, we know and they know that the military capabilities of their evil regime are crumbling.”
Hear supreme leader’s first message to Iranians…
For context: Hegseth is echoing earlier comments by Donald Trump, who told a US radio show that Khamenei was “probably alive in some form” but “damaged” (see our post at 10.57).
There has previously been speculation about Khamenei’s health, since he has not appeared in public since his appointment.
An Israeli intelligence report said Khamenei was lightly wounded on the day his father was killed in an airstrike in the early hours of the war.
Yousef Pezeshkian, the son of Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has said that friends had told him the 56-year-old was hurt but “healthy and there is no problem”.
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